Watching the clip from ll deserto rosso (Red Desert, 1964) reminds me of the time I was watching L’avventura (1960). I did not remember too much from the view experience of L’avventura, I can only remember that it was nothing like the other films I watched before, and certainly nothing like the films people make today. I remember the film is monochrome, and the cinematography is beautiful, maybe there is some philosophy embedded in it too.

However, when I watch the clip from Red Desert now, I can tell more than that. I can see how Antonioni is making the environment a big part of the scene, even the walls of an empty room are important components of the shots. The female character always around them both indoors and outdoors, which actually seems a bit unusual to me. I haven’t seen the whole film yet but I am assuming that it has something to do with the character’s mental status. I haven’t figured out what philosophy there is between the space and the scene, but if it was so easy, Antonioni would not be called a master anymore. Also I will watch it later.

Another thing about this clip we watched, is that it reminds me of Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love (2000). There is a scene in In the Mood for Love where Chow Mo-wan (Tony Chiu-Wai Leung) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) are walking along the alley. The two scenes are not exactly highly similar, but I am pretty sure Wong Kai-Wai was inspired by Antonioni.

People expressed some feelings about this clip we watched in our online class, and some of them do not like it. Honestly, I don’t know if I really ‘like’ it or not, my feeling towards it is a bit more complex than I can explain. A far as I know, I don’t get to like or dislike the works of someone like Antonioni, I am not experienced enough or have viewed enough cinema works to judge him. But I know one thing for sure, I want to be like him, I want to be able to make films like he does; to have this master-level control of sight and sound. Just like the story Robin told, Antonioni knew what the film would look like even before it was shot. I want to do that, I want to be him.